looking forward to that. >>> and last night, president obama called nelson mandela a moral giant, who embodied the dignity, the courage and the hope to inspire millions of people around the world. mandela, a personal hero to the president. let's bring in jon karl from the white house for more on that. president obama kept that photo, from his one brief meeting on his desk in the oval office. >> reporter: that's right, george. that photo is of a chance encounter that senator barack obama had in a washington hotel room with nelson mandela back in 2005. a copy of it was also in mandela's office in south africa. that is somebody who the president saw, not just as a hero, as a great leader. but also as the person who awakened him to the outside world. in a sense, listening to the president, you get the sense that there would not be a president obama if it were not for nelson mandela. the very first public speech that barack obama ever gave was as a young college student in 1979, for mandela's cause, speaking out against apartheid in south africa. now, president obama hoped to meet one last